Oreo Cupcakes

Before I get into this recipe I must tell you the tale of one of my most disastrous baking endeavours. On Tuesday night, I attempted to make cookie dough brownie cupcakes. They were meant to be a layer of cookie dough and a layer of brownie, they did not turn out that way. The mixture ended up just melting together in the oven and began to boil, in the cupcake cases. It was all very strange and upsetting. The reason I'm saying this is, sometimes people will tell me how they would love to make some of the baked goodies I have made in the past but that they are terrible at baking. I am here today to tell you that at one time, not too long ago I thought the same thing. My opinion has changed in the past year though as I've started baking more, becoming more aware of ingredients as well as picking up tips and tricks along the way. Ì am still constantly making mistakes though and if you're a regular reader you will know that I have no shame in admitting the mistakes that I've made and telling you guys so that you can avoid making the same ones. My point is, don't ever be afraid to give baking a go. If it doesn't turn out right you won't have lost anything, (a part from a few eggs & some butter) if it all goes well then you've got some fabulous baked treats and a massive sense of accomplishment.

Now onto what you all came here for, some delicious oreo cupcakes. My brother's doing exams at the moment and his favourite biscuits are oreos so I thought I would make these for him to help keep his spirits up. However, we all managed to chip in and give him a hand eating them. I used this recipe for reference, best one I found. These cupcakes were amazingly moist and chocolaty due to using dark chocolate to make them. I could have eaten the whole batch myself had someone let me, not all in one sitting though as they were also extremely rich. My icing skills went out the window on this one as I broke my icing gun last week. Sad times and I do apologise. In most recipes, people decided to put an oreo at the end of each cupcake and pour the batter over. Though I really like this idea I didn't have enough oreos to do this with all of the cupcakes. I did try this  technique with a few of the them though.

I couldn't remember which cupcakes had the full oreo in them so it was a surprise if we got one. For the majority of cupcakes, I crushed up a little more than half a packet of oreos and mixed them into the batter. Hence why the cupcakes are slightly bumpy in appearance. Cover with some icing and everyone is none the wiser. This recipe makes 20 cupcakes and I would suggest using two packets of oreos if you want to put the full oreo into the cupcake. In case you were wondering, I topped these with buttercream icing, with three crushed oreos added, you can find the recipe for my favourite buttercream icing in this post. Happy baking!

1. In a large bowl, stir together the dark chocolate, cocoa powder and hot water until the chocolate has completed melted. Make sure to chop the chocolate into small pieces so that it's easier to melt. Leave to cool in the fridge for around 10 minutes. 

2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line your tin with cupcake cases. Place an oreo in the bottom on the cupcake case, if you wish to do so. 

3. Mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar in another large bowl.

4. Remove your chocolate mixture from the fridge and whisk in the vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract. 

5. If you decided against putting the full oreo in the end of the cupcake, now is the time to add your crushed oreos to the batter. 

6. Pour the mixture into the cases, filling them to about 3/4 of the way full. 

7. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a skewer/knife comes out clean. 

8. Ice as desired. As I said above, I used buttercream icing (recipe here) with three crushed oreos added. 

My Travel Essentials

The first thing I threw into my bag while packing yesterday was the Nivea Lip Care Sun Protect with SPF30. I've used this before and it does exactly what it says on the tube, however it does taste slightly like sun cream. I do use face wipes along with cleanser, I am extremely lazy and these face wipes that I pick up in Aldi never cause my skin any trouble. For this trip I decided I would try out a new facial wash, I went for the Simple Kind To Skin Moisturising Facial Wash. When removing my make up, I usually use a face wipe to remove the majority of it and then go in with the No7 Hot Cloth Cleanser, which I remove with cotton pads. I'm currently using the No7 Protect & Perfect Day Cream and also the Night Cream. All of the No7 bits came in a Christmas gift set, that I am extremely thankful for right now.

If I remember correctly, majority of these things are shown in my What's In My Bag post so I won't go on for too long. My trusty old friend, Rescue Remedy, just in case I get anxious at any point during the trip. A travel size Colgate Total Toothpaste, I'm not sure why this wasn't included in the picture with my toothbrush but I'm sure they'll be together soon. Soap & Glory Hand Maid and L'occitane Mango Passion Hand Cream, I bring these two products everywhere so it makes sense that they would be piled into my travel bag too. My nail colour of choice is going to be Maybeline Forever Strong in Ceramic Blue, which to my disappointment, they no longer make. I hate brushing my hair, it's always painful and my hair is forever knotty (I always have those knots in the back of my hair that appear from nowhere) but it must be done so in goes the hairbrush too! 

I will be bringing my toothbrush and using it with the toothpaste, despite the fact that I decided to split them up for this post. My favourite shampoo and conditioner to take anywhere with me are the Aussie Miracle Moist Shampoo and 3 Minute Miracle Conditioner. If I use these for an extended period of time my hair gets used to them and they don't work as well, hence why I only use them when I travel. Everyone needs deodorant, let's be real. My deodorant of choice is the Mitchum Advanced Control Shower Fresh 48H Protection.

Lastly, we have the entertainment and bits that are actually essentials! My notebook is from Paperchase, I like to make lists daily and have a place to write down blog ideas. I have Givoanna Fletcher's book Billy and Me, pictured here. I actually read this last summer and it won't be my reading material for this trip but what I am reading is on the boy's kindle so I couldn't show it to you. I thought Billy and Me would be a good substitute as the book I am going to be reading is You're The One That I Want, also by Giovanna Fletcher. I will be taking my 5 year old Ipod with me to listen to The Danny Duncan Show and possibly some music. Actual things that I will need for my trip include, my purse, phone and passport! My snazzy pink passport case came with my passport, I quite like it.

So, I know there are definitely things missing here but that is the bulk of what I am taking with me minus clothes and my make up bag. Which I will be showing you in a post next week! As you probably will have guessed by now, I am really excited to go to Paris but I'm also very sad to leave my blog for a week. Never fear though because I have some wonderful guest bloggers to keep you guys entertained next week, along with a few scheduled posts of my own. 

What are your exciting plans for the summer? 

Summer Wishlist // Bags

I'm the kind of girl that has one bag, that I will wear to death. The handbag that can be seen in this post, is the one I take pretty much everywhere with me. It's has everything in it, all the time so there is no fear of leaving anything behind and to be honest, I'm just too lazy to be switching around handbags. However, that does not mean that I don't love a good bag. This summer's select is a pretty damn great one too so I thought I would share with you some of my favourites! I also unintentionally split them into two groups, pastels and brights, so fancy of me. 

1. Mint Green Tote Bag // €19.99, New Look

2. Beige Contrast Panel Satchel // €45, River Island 

3.  Large Pink Satchel // €37, River Island

4. Light Green Frame Bag // €55, River Island 

5. Messenger Bag with Metal Clasp // €49.95, Zara

6. Mini City Bag // €49.95, Zara 

7. Faux Leather Coral Satchel // €25.99, Missguided 

8. Clean Zip Top Clutch // £25, Topshop 

There are so many beautiful bags to choose at the moment. This is less than half of the bags I found while online window shopping. My favourites are 3 and 6, let me know what yours are! 

Seven Happy Things #4

I absolutely love writing these posts and a lot of people seem to enjoy reading them, which makes me so incredibly happy. This week I've decided to change the format slightly though, I don't know if it will be a permanent thing or not, we shall see. Instead of writing one thing or moment from each day that had me made me happy, I am going to write seven things that I have been grateful for this week. In all honesty, sometimes it's quite difficult to find things in a day that are exciting or interesting, some days are just really boring and mundane. However, I know that there are plenty of things that I have to be grateful for each week, so I am going to give this a go!

1. McBusted - As I mentioned it last week's Sunday post, I went to see McBusted on Monday in Dublin and it was so wonderful I can't even explain. I've always loved Busted, I think they're great, to this day. I remember the moment I first heard McFly, I was standing in front of the TV in my old house in England when the music video for "Five Colours In Her Hair" came on and I went crazy. They are my all time favourite band. This afternoon I also put the Busted album " A Present For Everyone" in the boy's car and we listened to it the whole way through.
   
   
2. The Danny Duncan Show - This is a a podcast by Danny Duncan, the drummer for the We The Kings, who also now does daily vlogs with his girlfriend, Lindsey and their pup, Mr. King. I started listening to it this week and it cheers me up so much. He's always accompanied by long time friends and/or band members. My favourite podcasts have been the ones with Lindsey though, they seem like two of the most genuine people out there.
   
   
3. Good Internet - We have amazingly fast internet in my house, which makes blogging a lot easier in terms of uploading large pictures and generally just getting things done faster. It was cut off for two days this week though, which meant no blogging or youtube videos or twitter blogger chats. So yes, this week I am even more grateful for the internet, and the fact that it is back in my house again.
   
   
4. Ice Cream - 99 cones with a flake, to be exact. Probably a weird thing to be grateful for, grateful probably isn't even the word. I am more grateful that the weather in Ireland has been nice enough to stop for an ice cream on the way home multiple times this month.
   
   
5. My Dogs - I have two dogs, Ollie and Max. Max is a Jack Russell and Ollie is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Max is mine and Ollie is the family dog. I have so much love for these two. I would have probably gone insane a long time ago if it weren't for them. Ollie is the sweetest pup in the world, I've had really bad days when I've just cried and Ollie has sat with me, pawing at me and falling asleep next to me. I will be forever grateful for him.
   
   
6. The Boy - He reads these so I'm not going to go on for too long and inflate his ego. In short, he is the most wonderful person in the world. I'm grateful to have him in my life every day but this week marks the fourth year of him being around. He has been extremely good to me in the past four years and I am super excited for all the years to come. I am also very glad that he now loves Max as much as I do.
   
   
7. Books - I don't read as much as I would like to, or as much as I should but this week I gave the boy "The Fault In Our Stars" to read and he's really enjoying it. There's nothing better than giving someone a book and seeing them love it as much as you did. Earlier, I purchased Giovanna Fletcher's new book "You're The One That I Want", so I am now even more excited to be heading off to Paris next week so I can read it. I read her first book "Billy And Me" last summer, it's a fantastic, I would highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.
   
   
   
   So there you go, seven things I have been grateful for this week! Leave me a comment down below letting me know what you have been grateful for this week. Also, if you're feeling kind, I'm looking for guest bloggers for the middle of June, I have a post about it here, I would really appreciate it if you had a read and maybe got in contact if you'd like to get involved! 

Guest Bloggers Wanted

As you've probably heard (because I tweet about it non stop and mention it in nearly every post), I'm going to Paris next week, not for long but the week before and after are going to be pretty hectic too. I do have some pre written posts and I am going to schedule them to go up while I'm in Paris. However, I would love to have some posts from a few other people too. I love the idea of guest posts, I've done a guest post on one blog before and I really enjoyed doing it. I also think it would just be fun to do something different, keep things interesting! So here are all the details, I'll also let you know how you can contact me at the end of this post!

• I will be posting them between Monday the 9th of June and Friday the 20th. You can choose whatever day you like and I can work my posts around it.
  
• I'll leave it up to you as to what you would like to make a post on. Something that reflects your blog maybe, to give readers an idea of what to expect from you. If you're a regular reader of In Katie's Corner, you'll know that I post about pretty much everything.
  
• Please don't be afraid to get in contact. I am terrified of no one actually wanting to participate. I was super nervous about my first guest blog post, I was nervous about even emailing to enquire about doing it. It turned out great though.
  

If you would like to help me out on this one, you can email me at katierose.bacon@gmail.com or send me a direct message/tweet me @inkatiescorner. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and I promise I don't bite!